Pray for Your Country to Change
If you could pray for your country and turn it around would you step forward and say, “Yes, I’m all in. I’m ready to trust God for the results.”
How would you feel when weeks, months, and years went by and nothing seemed to happen? Maybe your government’s leaders make political decisions for themselves rather than uphold the values of God and the welfare of their countrymen. You may want to throw in the towel and maybe even resign from your commitment of praying for your country.
I’ve learned when I want to quit on my country because of everything that’s not right, I must LOOK UP. It’s understandable to lose heart, except God needs you and me to pray. He needs us to patrol the spiritual atmosphere with our words.
Pray for Your Country When You’d Rather Live in Heaven
I daydream often about my life as a citizen in heaven. Possibly, Paul did too when he wrote Philippians 1:21-23.
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, desiring to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
Paul suffered beatings with rods and stones, robbings, and living without food and water. Evil surrounded him wherever he went. Except, he refused to quit. If he gave up, he would sign a death warrant quarantining people to hell. Paul knew he must deliver the message regarding how living with Christ as Lord and Savior is life-changing for eternity.
Paul felt inadequate on this Earth to carry out God’s will for him. He didn’t always know what to do.
Romans 8:16, 26-27 – For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
By connecting to God through scripture, you know how to pray for your country.
Prayer For Your Country Bible Verses
I Timothy 2:1-2 – Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
I Peter 2:17 – Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
Jeremiah 29:7 – And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
II Chronicles 7:14 – If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Proverbs 11:11 – By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
Psalm 33:10-12 – The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.The counsel of the Lord stands forever,The plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
Job 12:23-24 – He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them.He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, And makes them wander in a pathless wilderness.
God Is In Charge!
Psalm 47:2-9 – For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet.He will choose our inheritance for us, The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. God has gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding.God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham.For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted.
Dismiss satan’s taunts that nothing happens when you pray for your country. His job is to remove faith from your heart. He does that by discounting scripture.
How to Pray for Your Country
A majority of leaders may not acknowledge Jesus as Lord over their lives but you can believe that some do. When they don’t, God can still work through them for His purposes. Your part in God’s plan is to pray for all of them so that your country becomes one nation under the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Here are suggestions on how to pray for your country.
- To Follow Biblical Principles: It’s a Christian’s job to pray for leaders. We may not like this responsibility but God promises tranquility and peace to all who do. You and I can develop hearts of stone against leaders when they make poor decisions or seem hostile or ambivalent to human needs. Instead of feeling powerless to make changes and focus on what we can’t do, it’s better to believe that God is more than able to change them.
- To Pray that Leaders Gain Wisdom: Never forget that God caused King Nebuchadnezzar to eat grass for a season until he learned that “the most high rules in the kingdom of men” (Daniel 4:32). Leaders need wisdom from heaven to make decisions that affect people’s lives. Pray according to James 3:17 that leaders would be gentle, reasonable, impartial, sincere, and abundant in good works.
- To Pray for Pure Motives: Minds clouded by greed, wrong associations, and distractions can sidetrack leaders and cause wrong motives. To pray for someone else, Christians must make sure their own motives are without reproach. If we have a get’em God approach because leaders seem to get by with sin and we don’t, those prayers never reach heaven.
- To Pray for Mercy: Spreading the message of the Gospel (the truth of God about salvation) is what God wants Christians to do. He loves all people and we should too. When leaders miss God, sometimes entirely, our merciful hearts can ask that they learn to extend mercy when making decisions and judgments. James 2:13 – “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Pray For Your Country and Globally
- To Release Global Concerns to God: Praying for your country fuels your desire to pray for all lands worldwide. By praying for people in high positions, Christians clear the way for the Gospel message to be preached to the ends of the Earth. When we enlarge our tents, we expand our perspectives about what God can do to change the world. Speak specific persons’ names out loud and don’t have a critical or condemning spirit about leaders. See them entering God’s presence when no one is around to watch. Believe God is sending harvesters to them. Forbid satan to continue working in their lives.
Remember, this is not your home. Christians will never feel at home until they are in heaven with Christ. In the meantime, you and I can make a difference while we’re here to change the outcome for thousands, if not millions. We can pray for the lost souls of our nations so all is well.